“I will permanently close the drug dens in Gwadar, push illegal trawlers off the Baloch sea, remove check-posts, and uplift border trade.” These were some of the catchy slogans upon which Maulana Hidayat-ur-Rehman, provincial general secretary of Jamat-e-Islami and founder of Haq Do Tehreek Gwadar, contested the election in PB-26 Gwadar, one of the most important constituencies in Balochistan. The people of Gwadar, who had been electing Mir Hammal Kalamati for the last three general elections, decided to experiment with Maulana Hidayatur Rehman, who not only appeared as a new face from a middle-class family but also presented verbal solutions to some of the burning issues mentioned above.
MHR, being an active member of JI, projected himself as a true nationalist, taking an aggressive approach to counter other nationalist parties, including BNP and NP. His focus on fishermen and women voters brought him a huge vote bank. Initially, he began to block main highways on every major and minor issue. He held the largest protest rally in Gwadar, where thousands of people joined for their basic rights. To cut the long story short, he managed to win the confidence of the people and secured a seat in the Balochistan Assembly. Anticipations were quite high right after his victory as an MPA.
He was one of the only candidates whose victory was equally celebrated by fishermen, those involved in border trade, common transporters, and others. Now that he is representing the case of Gwadar and its people, signs of disappointment have already begun to rise. Freedom for drug peddlers, the bravery of trawlers, the existence of check-posts, and the regular closure of border trade have raised some serious questions that may soon challenge MHR’s credibility.
Maulana himself knew from the very beginning that these issues could only be used as slogans for the election campaign and could not be addressed practically, but how is he going to explain this to his voters who expected him to act as a superhero who solves every issue? Maulana was being termed as the last hope for Gwadar, but he is causing hopelessness among the people of Gwadar. Once a roaring lion on the streets, the Maulana is not the same on the assembly floor.
Now, what next? Fishermen of Gwadar will be watching their only source of living being destroyed by illegal trawlers with a lot of blessings from the Fisheries department; more and more youngsters will move towards drug addiction; transporters and passengers will continue to suffer; trade at the border will remain frozen. The failing Maulana will introduce a new politician with old slogans or an old politician with new slogans. Only time will tell.